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Re: PTC
Author: dumb kid, about that emperor..
Date: 01-16-2018 - 22:11
PTC is super expensive.
You know who's paid for it? Two people: existing participants in freight rail (shippers, owners, employees), and the future of the industry, to the extent it hasn't been collected yet. It will need to be collected, and constantly. With coal on the decline, highly automated trucks coming, and RR manifest traffic competency withering it should be downright scary to anyone here that our industry has to pay for something this expensive that isn't all that - presumably forever forward.
If you've seen cab signal maintenance on the freight roads, you know these systems will be about as great as the maintainers and their training / equipment maintenance resourcing... And the railroads are finding oh so many millenials to embrace non-office tech work, beyond the hook the computer up and change the part it flags business. Thank goodness the wars, at least, are giving a few some skills here.
How critical can system be, when if it fails en-route - the SOP is to turn it off? Sounds like it was really damn important. If it's so important, snarl the whole damn network and insist the train be fixed, eh? If you can't afford to do that, why the hell would you pretend it's worth relying on?
All these routes that it's turned on - not hearing great stories about % uptime. And this is super new gear, not stuff that's been bumping around in the hot nose of the unit for several years.
Passenger rail seems to be the kiss of death for freight corridors. The commuter trains come, the spurs don't get the service, the customers progressively move out. Look around any commuter corridor and say this isn't the case. Then the popularity of the train gentrifies the corridor, to boot. Good way to turn a red neighborhood blue I guess.
Automated cars are coming fairly soon. Once it is obvious they are safer than human drivers, our days of 'enjoying' screwing around on the road must certainly be numbered, because it won't be legal for long.
And remind me there - if roads can move more people per square foot cheaper and at lower energy per person mile - when that inflection is crossed (if it hasn't been already) what was the point of passenger rail again??
Oh, and last I checked only the gov't agency / passenger operators have a liability cap. Don't ask me why the goobers at Amtrak or your local metro agency deserve that, but the freight roads with better safety records and arguably more criticality to the national interest have to fly with what they can afford to buy - and naked beyond that.
Just a few observations which seem to stand up to consideration.
You know who's paid for it? Two people: existing participants in freight rail (shippers, owners, employees), and the future of the industry, to the extent it hasn't been collected yet. It will need to be collected, and constantly. With coal on the decline, highly automated trucks coming, and RR manifest traffic competency withering it should be downright scary to anyone here that our industry has to pay for something this expensive that isn't all that - presumably forever forward.
If you've seen cab signal maintenance on the freight roads, you know these systems will be about as great as the maintainers and their training / equipment maintenance resourcing... And the railroads are finding oh so many millenials to embrace non-office tech work, beyond the hook the computer up and change the part it flags business. Thank goodness the wars, at least, are giving a few some skills here.
How critical can system be, when if it fails en-route - the SOP is to turn it off? Sounds like it was really damn important. If it's so important, snarl the whole damn network and insist the train be fixed, eh? If you can't afford to do that, why the hell would you pretend it's worth relying on?
All these routes that it's turned on - not hearing great stories about % uptime. And this is super new gear, not stuff that's been bumping around in the hot nose of the unit for several years.
Passenger rail seems to be the kiss of death for freight corridors. The commuter trains come, the spurs don't get the service, the customers progressively move out. Look around any commuter corridor and say this isn't the case. Then the popularity of the train gentrifies the corridor, to boot. Good way to turn a red neighborhood blue I guess.
Automated cars are coming fairly soon. Once it is obvious they are safer than human drivers, our days of 'enjoying' screwing around on the road must certainly be numbered, because it won't be legal for long.
And remind me there - if roads can move more people per square foot cheaper and at lower energy per person mile - when that inflection is crossed (if it hasn't been already) what was the point of passenger rail again??
Oh, and last I checked only the gov't agency / passenger operators have a liability cap. Don't ask me why the goobers at Amtrak or your local metro agency deserve that, but the freight roads with better safety records and arguably more criticality to the national interest have to fly with what they can afford to buy - and naked beyond that.
Just a few observations which seem to stand up to consideration.
